Watchable Sports in Cleveland?

I now have reason to watch the Cavaliers.

Last night against the New Orleans Hornets, the Cavaliers were down by 25 points at one point in the second quarter. 25 points. The Hornets were on fire and started the game shooting a ridiculous 80% from the field and the Cavs just couldn’t do anything right. The Cavs decided to change things up a bit and put Jason Kapono into the game.

Jason Kapono was an afterthought pick in the second round of the draft last year from UCLA. He came in the game when it was totally out of control, caught fire and led the comeback from 25 points down. In 28 minutes, Kapono went 7-9 from the field including 5-5 from three-point range for 19 points. After three quarters, the score was 77-73 in favor of the Hornets.

Then the rest of the team caught on, as Coach Paul Silas left Kapono on the floor for a good portion of the rest of the game. The Cavs finished off the Hornets 104-100 for the unlikely comeback and win. This is the Cavs third win in a row. It is their 23rd win of the season. It puts Cleveland tied with Philly for 9th place in the eastern conference. The top 8 teams get into the playoffs.

These are all just stats though. This is the first time in years that the Cavs have had a team. A group of guys that don’t seem out of place together. A group of guys who pick each other up and do different things every night. The last few years we either saw Ricky Davis shooting ridiculous fade-away jumpers, or a completely forced offense through Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Nobody else was even capable of scoring.

Add in the number one pick in the draft, and a coach who wasn’t a discount special off of the league scrap-heap and look what can happen. Now we see Lebron not only leading the scoring, but also leading the team. The difference is that when he has problems, which as a rookie he has from time to time, he is making Carlos Boozer better by drawing attention to himself and then dishing off. Sure he takes some awful shots sometimes, but he is learning and has been pretty successful so far.

The Cavs improvement goes further though. They picked up point guard Jeff McInnis from Portland. He was generally considered to be a bit of a bad guy even though he is very talented. So far he has been far more valuable than Darius Miles ever was. He allows Lebron to play the 2-guard and concentrates on setting the offense. Carlos Boozer has continued to get better and better as a power forward and Zydrunas Ilgauskas has improved his defense this year with instruction from Paul Silas and is still reliable for 20 points a night.

The biggest difference in the team this year is depth. Because they traded guys like Ricky Davis, Chris Mihm and Darius Miles, they were able to get solid veterans like Jeff McInnis, who I mentioned, along with Tony Battie and Eric Williams, who are coming off the bench. These guys shore up the defense and provide some leadership for all the young guys on the team. This depth is what makes the Cavs a team and ultimately watchable this year.

They have a budding superstar in Lebron. They potential allstars in Zydrunas and Boozer and they have a bench full of role players who can step in and carry the load for a few nights a season. This is the start of a very good team. They may make the playoffs this year, but they won’t go far. Still not bad for a team starting from nothing.

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